So, what is a pocket listing? Essentially, it’s a private, “off-market” listing. Instead of putting the property in our MLS database (the Multiple Listing Service), the agent restricts access to information about the property to their buyer clients or different colleagues.

Pocket listings usually come into play in the super luxury market where sellers have many reasons for not allowing a traditional listing or exposure.

For most properties, I don’t believe pocket listings are a good option. If you are going to sell the property and want a creative strategy to do it, there are many other options than pocket listings.

Why do sellers consider pocket listings when selling Miami Beach Home?

There are many reasons, but here are a few of the most common.

1. The sellers may not be 100% ready and motivated to sell their property. Some sellers are trying to test the market and are just not ready to commit.

2. Some sellers like the privacy and don’t want everyone to know they are trying to sell their home. For whatever reason, the sellers do not want pictures taken of the inside of their home and their address exposed to marketing.

3. Sellers do not want to be bothered by too many showings and multiple potential buyers walking through the home.

4. Sellers are interested in selling their home, but they do not want an official agreement with an agent.

When selling your Miami Beach home is this a good strategy?

If you want maximum exposure to the property and a lot of “eyeballs” on the listing, it’s probably not the best idea.

First it is important to know that when you sign a formal listing agreement with a local Realtor, our MLS takes that listing, and every agent in the local MLS has access to it. It also gets syndicated out to various large web portals online, think “Realtor.com” and a lot of other big real estate websites. Since most buyers start their search online, if you want maximum exposure, you need to be online.

Second it limits the agent in being able to promote and market your listing, including any publication with the great looking photos.

Third putting your property on the market properly will tell you immediately whether your pricing is correct or not and you as a seller will know if your property is correctly positioned in the market.

I think you have to ask yourself how bad you want to sell your property and how serious you are? With a pocket listing, your agent will have a very limited marketing capacity. For typical sellers, this is not enough.

If you are thinking about selling your Miami Beach home and want to talk about different ways to position the property, let us know. Pocket listings are probably not the best option for most sellers in today’s Miami Beach Real estate market.